Predoctoral Psychology Externship Program

Sheppard Pratt offers two externship opportunities for predoctoral psychology graduate students. Both predoctoral psychology externships are offered at Sheppard Pratt’s flagship campus in Towson, Maryland. 

Assessment Externship: providing diagnostic and psychological evaluation services to patients ages 1 ½ to 17 years in a variety of diagnostic and treatment settings across levels of care 

Inpatient Externship: providing individual and group therapy and psychoeducational and skills groups in inpatient treatment settings for patients with serious mental illness 

Assessment Externship 

For predoctoral psychology graduate students interested in advanced training focused on diagnostic assessment and psychological evaluation with children and adolescents, Sheppard Pratt is the perfect place to complete your externship. Trainees must have completed coursework in psychological assessment, including tests of cognitive abilities/IQ and have previous experience working with children in a clinical setting. 

Externs can expect to: 

• Be onsite in our outpatient child and adolescent clinic 16 hours/week 
• Receive 1 – 2 hours/week of individual supervision by a licensed psychologist 
• Work with children ages 1 – 17 years with a variety of diagnoses 
• Conduct diagnostic interviews and psychological testing, write reports, and participate in case conferences 
• Gain skills in test selection, administration, scoring, interpretation, and communicating results 
• Learn and practice evaluating cognitive functioning, attention, memory, learning adaptive skills, behavior, temperament/personality, and emotional functioning from toddlerhood through adolescence 
• Interact with multidisciplinary teams including psychologists, psychiatrists, speech/language pathologists, occupational therapists, social workers, and others 
• Participate in weekly continuing education seminars 

To apply: 

Interested applicants should submit a cover letter, CV, and two letters of recommendation to Dr. Crystal DeVito at Crystal.DeVito@sheppardpratt.org. Submission of a de-identified psychological evaluation authored by the student is encouraged. Letters of recommendation must be emailed directly from the recommender.  

Applications are accepted through January 31.   

For more information, contact: 

Crystal DeVito, PhD 
Crystal.DeVito@sheppardpratt.org 
443-462-2238 

Inpatient Externship 

In addition to the assessments-focused externship, Sheppard Pratt offers an externship for predoctoral students interested in inpatient programming focused on individual and group therapy, and psychoeducational and skills groups. Trainees must have completed coursework in individual and group therapy as well as psychological assessments, including personality and cognitive abilities testing.  

Externs can expect to: 

• Be onsite at the Sheppard Pratt campus in Towson 16 hours/week; this hospital offers inpatient units for child, adult, and geriatric populations, with a specialty unit focused on eating disorders 
• Receive 1 – 2 hours/week of individual supervision by a licensed psychologist; externs will also receive supervision for individual and group therapy, as well as assessments 
• Participate in weekly didactic with other psychologists 
• Join interdisciplinary teams to lead interpersonal process and psychoeducation groups 
• Provide twice weekly individual therapy to patients 
• Gain experience providing treatment for populations requiring an acute level of care 
• Bolster knowledge and experience conducting diagnostic interviews and administering, scoring, and interpreting psychological tests 

To apply: 

Interested applicants should submit a cover letter, CV, and two letters of recommendation to Dr. Dan Summers at Dan.Summers@sheppardpratt.org. Letters of recommendation must be emailed directly from the recommender. 

Applications are accepted October 1 – January 31; interviews are held in mid-February. 

For more information: 

Dan Summers, PsyD 
Dan.Summers@sheppardpratt.org  
410-938-5264